Jake Berenson
Jake Berenson is the leader of the Animorphs. General Information Full Name: Jake Berenson Nickname(s): Fearless Leader, Prince Jake Gender: Male Age: 13 - 16 (Series Time Span) Personality: Responsible. Reluctant. Battle morph: Siberian Tiger Best friend : Marco Girlfriend: Cassie Famous Quote: "It's just Jake." Portrayed by: Shawn Ashmore Biography At the beginning of the Animorphs series, Tobias announces to the team that he thinks that Jake should be their leader. The other Animorphs quickly agree, and Jake reluctantly accepts the position. He is described by his cousin Rachel as a person who can give orders without sounding overly bossy. At first, Jake doesn't view himself as a leader, and thus isn't willing to accept the role, but when he learns that his older brother Tom is a Controller, his desire to save his brother serves as the fuel to his unyielding determination in his fight against the Yeerks. Personality Reason why Tobias wanted him to be the leader of the Animorphs are due to him naturally fit for the job, as he is brave, responsible, cool under pressure, and able to take charge during a crisis. As the leader of the small band of guerrilla warriors, his leadership, his choices and mistakes, and the responsibility he assumes are recurring themes in the series. Despite his best efforts, Jake never attains his main goal for joining the fight: saving his brother from Yeerk infestation. After he fails to save Tom from the Yeerks, he is left emotionally damaged and unable to lead. Before the final battle, Cassie manages to lift him out of it, but her success is short-lived. Morphs Battle Morph(s): Siberian Tiger (Main), Rhinoceros Bird Morph: Peregrine Falcon (Main), Seagull, Great Horned Owl Book Morphs *According to the Anibase, which can be downloaded here, Jake has a total 43 morphs in the series. Television Show Morphs Jake has a total of 15 morphs in the TV show. Trivia *Jake's real WAA username is close to being Bball24. It is a reference to his best basketball game, where he scored 24 points. *In the Animorphs television series Jake's Siberian tiger battle morph was replaced with a White Bengal tiger. *While inside Jake's mind, (In The Capture) Temrash taunted Jake of not knowing what the Andalites were truly like. By this of course he was referring to the arrogant history of the Andalites towards other species, which is later focused on in the series. We begin to see some development towards this in #8: The Alien when Ax finally reveals the Law of Seerow's Kindness to the Animorphs. This revelation and others are explored continually further in other books such as #18: The Decision, #34: The Prophecy, #38: The Arrival, The Andalite Chronicles, and especially in the The Hork-Bajir Chronicles. *In The Answer, Jake finally breaks the "I can't tell you my last name or where I live" tradition, and reveals that his last name is Berenson and that the Animorphs have been fighting the Yeerks in California for a total of 3 years. Marco reveals that Jake is 16, meaning that the Animorphs began the war at the age of 13. *In the original idea for the series, Jake's name was going to be Matt and he was going to have a little brother named Joseph. *Jake narrates a small portion of Cassie's book (The Departure) because Cassie was stuck in a chrysalis in butterfly morph. *Jake has the most books in the series. He gets a part in narrating 17 books in total. * Jake's first morph is his pet golden retriever Homer. Homer later appears as Jake's cover morph in T he Threat. * A running gag between him and Ax involves Ax calling him "Prince," and him objecting to the title. Amusingly inverted in the beginning in Megamorphs #3, where he objects to Ax calling him "Prince" to instead demand he be called "Supreme Leader." *In the Anibase, K.A. Applegate had this to say about a very memorable scene in The Attack : **"The Jake and Cassie kiss was not only something Ani-Fans had wanted for a long time, it was our small homage to the first interracial kiss on TV, the famous Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Uhura moment. That long-ago kiss ignited a storm of angry response. For us, we always got lots of fan mail, and not a single letter that we ever saw complained about the kiss between a black character and a white character. Mostly what readers said was, 'It's about time!'" Category:Book Heroes Category:Leaders Category:Male Category:Animals Category:Fantasy Heroes Category:The Hero